City Limits August 13, 2026 Excerpted and adapted from a shiur by Rav Moshe Ze’ev…
Bee or Not Bee? That Is the Question.
Which honey does the Torah mean?
Adapted from the writings of Dayan Yitzhak Grossman
July 2, 2026
The JTA reports:
Ben & Jerry’s Israel operation has come up with a flavor that does not leave much to interpretation. Called “Milk and Honey,” a nod to the Biblical description of the Land of Israel, its namesake ingredients are supplied by Israeli cows and bees and its chocolate fudge pieces come shaped like Stars of David.
The company, which split from its American counterpart after a contentious 2021 boycott fight, is billing the new pint as its “most Israeli flavor ever” and, on its website, as a “symbol of hope, rehabilitation, and positive action” after the Hamas-led Oct. 7 attack.
Its ingredients and production come from southern Israeli communities most affected by the massacre and the war that followed. The company, based in the southern city of Kiryat Malachi, said it “felt a responsibility to take an active part in the region’s recovery process.”[1]
The word “dvash (honey)” appears numerous times in Tanach, and while some instances clearly refer to bee honey,[2] others are ambiguous. With respect to the description of Eretz Yisrael as “eretz zavas chalav udvash,”[3] Tana’im disagree about the meaning of both dvash and chalav:
R’ Eliezer says: “Chalav” is the fat of the fruits; “dvash” is date honey.
R’ Akiva says: “Chalav” is real chalav (i.e., milk); “dvash” is the honey of forests, and so it says (in Sefer Shmuel): “The people came to the forest and behold! There was an oozing of dvash.”[4],[5]
R’ Akiva’s understanding of dvash is, in turn, not entirely clear; the pasuk he cites in Shmuel is explained by Rashi[6] (followed by the Metzudos[7]) as referring to sugarcane, but R’ Dovid Zvi Hoffmann seems to understand R’ Akiva as interpreting dvash to mean bee honey.[8]
The Gemara does not seem to follow either R’ Eliezer or R’ Akiva. It asks: “From where do we derive that the milk of a kosher animal is permitted?” It offers a number of possible sources, including
Or, if you wish, from here: “a land flowing with milk and honey.” If milk is not permitted, would the pasuk praise Eretz Yisrael for something that is not fit for consumption?[9]
This is the view of R’ Akiva, that eretz zavas chalav refers to milk. But one daf later, with respect to the permissibility of bee honey, the Gemara does not cite the description of Eretz Yisrael as an eretz zavas…udvash, but offers two other justifications instead:
For what reason did they say that bees’ honey is permitted? Because they ingest [the nectar of flowers] into their bodies and do not excrete [honey] from their bodies (rather, their bodies transform the nectar into honey—Rashi)…
For it was taught in a breisa: R’ Yaakov says: “But this you may eat from all creeping creatures that fly” (Vayikra 11:21). This teaches: This you may eat, but you may not eat a nonkosher creeping creature that flies.
Regarding a nonkosher creeping creature that flies, it is written explicitly in the Torah that it is prohibited, so why is that inference necessary?
Rather, the breisa means to teach that you may not eat a nonkosher creeping creature that flies, but you may eat what a nonkosher flying creature produces. And what is that? It is bees’ honey. (This is based on sheretz having dual meanings—Rashi in his first explanation.)[10]
The conspicuous omission of eretz zavas chalav udvash as a source for the permissibility of bee honey seems to indicate that the Gemara understands dvash like R’ Eliezer, as fruit honey rather than bee honey.
In at least one appearance of dvash in the Torah, there are halachic ramifications to its meaning. The Torah commands, “for you shall not cause to go up in smoke from any se’or (leavening) or dvash as a fire-offering to Hashem.”[11] Rashi comments that all fruit sweetness is called dvash,[12] which might imply that bee honey is not included in the prohibition.[13] But the Rambam’s codification of the issur mentions dvash without further elaboration,[14] and the Mishneh Lamelech is unsure whether he means to include bee honey.[15] The Chinuch explicitly states that dvash in this context includes “the known honey (i.e., bee honey), as well as date honey—which is the standard dvash of the Torah—as well as the liquid that emerges from sweet fruits.”[16] The Radvaz, too, records that although he had initially maintained that the prohibition is limited to the shivas haminim (the seven species for which Eretz Yisrael is praised), he ultimately concluded, based on numerous lines of reasoning, that
Dvash that is mentioned in the Torah includes all types of dvash: that which emerges from fruit—whatever fruit it may be—as well as bee honey. And if one offers in smoke any amount of it, or from a mixture containing it, he is flogged.[17]
This is apparently the position of the Netziv in Ha’ameik Davar as well. He writes, in the context of the issur to offer dvash, that the Torah uses the term for anything that sweetens and flavors food.[18]
From Pitum Haketoress in the liturgy:
Bar Kapara taught further: Had one put a kortov[19] of dvash into [the incense], no person could have resisted its scent. Why did they not mix dvash into it? Because the Torah says, “for you shall not cause to go up in smoke from any se’or or dvash as a fire-offering to Hashem.”
Acharonim wonder about the point of this breisa: Why is it important to know that mixing dvash into the incense would have made its scent irresistible if doing so is asur, and why ask why it wasn’t done given the obviousness of the answer?[20] They offer various explanations. But in light of the above, we can suggest that Bar Kapara was referring to bee honey (which is generally the meaning of dvash in Chazal’s parlance[21]), and although, as we have seen, many authorities do understand the prohibition to encompass bee honey, this is by no means obvious. Indeed, this breisa is actually one of the Radvaz’s proofs that the prohibition includes bee honey:
Bar Kapara taught…And if it is so (that the prohibition is limited to dvash of the shivas haminim), let them bring bee dvash or that of other fruits like berries or carobs…and mix it into the ketoress to intensify its scent. It is thus certainly implicit that all types of dvash are prohibited to offer up in smoke.[22]
[1]Deborah Danan. Years after a boycott fight, Ben & Jerry’s Israel debuts a flavor celebrating Israeli resilience. JTA.
[2]See, e.g., Shoftim 14:8, and cf. Shu”t HaRadvaz cheilek 3 toward the end of siman 962 (527) at the beginning of p. 38a.
[3]Shmos 13:5 (and earlier in 3:17).
[5]Mechilta DeR’ Shimon bar Yochai (Frankfurt 5665) ibid. (p. 32).
[8]See his note to the Mechilta ibid. os 20. See also R’ Yaakov Zisberg, Eretz Zavas Chalav Udvash, Hama’ayan, Gilyon 246 Tamuz 5783 [63,4] pp. 25-27.
[12]Rashi ibid. Cf. Rashbam ibid.; Ibn Ezra ibid.
[13]Radvaz (ibid.), however, argues that the Mizrachi’s language in explaining Rashi implies that he understood Rashi to mean that bee honey is included in the issur.
[14]Hilchos Isurei Mizbeiach 5:1.
[15]Mishneh Lamelech ibid. Cf. Ma’asei Rokeiach ibid.
[16]Sefer Hachinuch (Frankfurt) mitzvah 117, and cf. Minchas Chinuch ibid.
[17]Radvaz ibid.
[18]Ha’ameik Davar ibid. Cf. the beginning of this article: Toras Hakorbanos, Issur Chametz (Udvash).
[19]ArtScroll Siddur: “A kortov equals 1/256 of a kav, or approximately 1/20 of a fluid ounce. Here it is used to mean a minimal amount, a touch.”
[20]See the end of Shu”t HaRadvaz cheilek 4 siman 1100 (36); Birkei Yosef O.C. siman 132 os 10; Pnei Moshe (R’ Moshe Cohen: 5747) siman 132 p. 35; Shu”t Yabia Omer cheilek 9 O.C. siman 85 os 6.
[21]See Shu”t HaRadvaz cheilek 3 ibid. toward the end of p. 37b.
[22]Ibid. p. 38a. Despite the Radvaz’s earlier assertion that dvash as used by Chazal generally refers to bee honey, he is apparently not assuming that Bar Kapara’s references to dvash here actually refer to bee honey; he is just asking why bee honey was not indeed added. Perhaps he means to argue that even if one were to deny that Bar Kapara was referring to bee honey, he would still have to address the question of why bee honey was not indeed added.
Cf. here.
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